


Sometimes it's not about knowing the right answer

by mynamelessname



Category: Arashi (Band), Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 17:25:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynamelessname/pseuds/mynamelessname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jun has one goal in life: to lead a winning quiz bowl team. Facing another losing season with his team of misfits, he turns to Sho as the only one who can help get them out of their slump.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes it's not about knowing the right answer

**Author's Note:**

> Written for m_nemonica for je_holiday. :) Title is from Starter for Ten.

Jun had all but given up on practice that day. He glanced up from the tournament schedule to look over the unlikely Waseda University trivia bowl team. Yamapi, Jin, and Ryo were huddled over Jin’s iPhone, watching something that Jun suspected had nothing to do with trivia. In fact, given the suspicious grins and nudges between all three, it was highly inappropriate, even. Ryo had apparently been a hotshot trivia bowl competitor before he transferred from his university in Osaka. (Jun had yet to see evidence to back up that claim.) Ryo’s roommate Yamapi tagged along to practices because he had nothing better to do. As for Jin… Jun was fairly certain that Jin only joined the trivia bowl team because Ryo and Yamapi had convinced him that girls would think he’s smart. That, and Jun always bribed everyone into coming to practice with a large tray of snacks.

At the same time, Aiba and Shun were on the other side of the room, trying to see who could eat the most cookies without throwing up. As Jun’s best friend, Shun should’ve backed him up, but Shun did always say Jun was no fun. And well, no one could say no to Aiba. Jun had learned that freshman year when they were chemistry lab partners. Aiba attached himself to Jun’s side ever since, whether Jun liked it or not. If he could survive Aiba’s strange experiments with nothing other than singed eyebrows, he could survive having him on the trivia bowl team.

Jun checked his phone for the time and noticed a new email. His eyes went wide at the name of the sender: Sakurai Sho. He had given up hope for receiving a reply from his ~~idol~~ fellow team captain. Waseda and Keio were supposed to be rivals, but Sho’s team was pretty much unbeatable. Jun couldn’t help but be in awe of the other man’s success. Desperate to end his own team’s losing streak, Jun sent an email proposing a practice match, hoping to pick up _something_ that could help his team. Bracing himself for rejection, Jun opened the message and read it with wide eyes.

 _I think a practice match would be a great idea. How does next Tuesday at 6 pm sound? Want to meet in our practice room here at Keio?  
Sho_

Jun was about to protest that Sho didn’t need to take on hosting duties, but then he looked around his own practice room, not much larger than a closet. Jun quickly typed off a reply, accepting Sho’s offer and thanking him, then stood up. He cleared his throat loudly to get his team’s attention. “Okay, I think we’re going to end practice here today,” Jun announced. _Not like anything was accomplished,_ he thought before continuing. “But next week we’ll have a practice session with the Keio team. I expect you _all_ to be there.” Jun gave each of his teammates a pointed look. He could only hope that the experience would teach them how a _real_ team practiced.

\---

Jun’s nerves were already frazzled by the time they arrived at Keio. Ever since the university pulled the trivia bowl team’s van privileges, they had to make do with Jun’s small hatchback. Fitting all five of his teammates into his car was always an interesting experience. Jun gratefully parked his car and led his team through the unfamiliar hallways. He checked the directions once more to make sure he had the right room, then tentatively popped his head inside the doorway. He was greeted by a sight that didn’t look much different from his own practice room. Everyone was involved in distinctly not-practicing activities, whether it was eyeing the box of donuts on the table or pounding the keys of a DS. Obviously, it was the process of transforming this into actual practice that Jun had come to see. In the midst of all this, Jun realized that their leader was missing. He was about to clear his throat to announce their presence, when Sho greeted them from behind.

“Oh, you’re here! Come in, come in.” Balancing a tray of drinks, Sho ushered them into the room. As their team never did well enough to actually compete against Sho’s team, Jun had only met the other man by chance one time as they were leaving a tournament. That didn’t stop Jun from admiring Sho from afar, in a distinctly non-creepy way, of course. Despite his team’s protests, Jun insisted on staying for the entire tournament, even when they were eliminated in the first round. While the rest of his team goofed off in the back of the auditorium, Jun had plenty of time to study the winning teams. He couldn’t help but envy the way that Sho’s team ran like a well-oiled machine.

Jun stepped forward to help Sho with the drinks. “Sakurai-san, thanks for agreeing to practice together.”

Sho cut him off with the wave of a hand. “Oh, it’s no problem at all. And please, call me Sho. Your team is having a bit of bad luck this season.” Jun cringed. “A bit of bad luck” was being generous, but he didn’t bother to correct Sho, who continued his rambling, “I think it’s great that we can look past the silly rivalries of our schools. Oh, it looks like everyone is here.”

Jun looked around the room. While they were busy talking, Shun and Aiba gravitated towards the slight man engrossed in his DS, Jin towards the guardian of the box of donuts, Ryo and Yamapi towards a couple of guys huddled around a laptop. “It looks like everyone is getting acquainted, yeah?” Sho commented with a bright smile.

Jun could only hope that his team wouldn’t teach Sho’s team any of their bad habits. He didn’t want to be responsible for ruining _two_ teams. “How do you usually conduct practice?” Jun asked. “I have recordings of past tournaments on my laptop, we - well, I - usually watch at least one at the beginning of practice to analyze what kinds of questions they’re asking, what we need to work on, that sort -.” Jun cut off as he realized that Sho was staring.

“You actually _watch_ recordings of the tournaments?” Sho asked with a barely suppressed chuckle. Jun almost became irritated at that, he hadn’t come here to get mocked, but then he _was_ looking to Sho for help. “No, no, no, nothing like that. Right now, Koyama and Shige are looking up recent entertainment news, so we starts off with their report as well as sports from Masuda and Tegoshi, oh and video games from Nino, _though we’ve never had a question about video games_ ,” Sho called loudly, giving the man with the DS a pointed look.

“Just because we never have doesn’t mean we never will~,” Nino replied, his eyes never leaving his DS.

“I only put up with him because I’ve known him since elementary school,” Sho commented with a shrug.

“And because your mother likes having me over for dinner,” came the voice from across the room.

Jun felt himself relax in the midst of the teasing. Sho laughed at Nino’s last comment before continuing, “I handle current events and politics, as well as looking for any recent trends in the judge’s questions. We throw around some practice questions for a while, a little bit of everything, then that’s it. Nothing too complicated.”

Jun shook his head, it couldn’t be that easy, not when they were one of the top teams in the country, but he didn’t say anything. He was here to learn from the pros… after Nino finished the next level of his game, of course.

\---

The joint practices became a monthly occurrence. Jun was certain that his teammates only agreed because they enjoyed hanging out with Sho’s team. Nino and Shun couldn’t stop talking about video games. Aiba found a new partner for his experiments in Ohno, a sleepy looking man Jun hadn’t noticed during their first practice (and he still hadn’t figured out Ohno’s role on the team, other than to doodle on napkins and talk fishing with Shige). Jin, Ryo, and Yamapi had formed camaraderie with the sports and entertainment divisions of Sho’s team, even if it often devolved into Jin stealing Shige’s laptop to look up unrelated things.

“How do you do it?” Jun asked one day after their joint practice.

Sho paused as he picked up empty cups. Everyone else was gone, leaving the two captains to clean up. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t assign books to study, or pour over every trivia question ever asked, yet you keep winning. And I know you can’t be bribing the judges to get the easy questions,” Jun stared into Sho’s face, as if he could find the answers lurking in Sho’s eyes.

“We’re too competitive, you and I,” Sho replied with a shrug. “That’s what makes us good captains, good leaders, but it can also make us too strict with our teammates. That’s why I keep Nino around, to keep me balanced. My first year as captain, I drove most of the team away by being too strict, then Nino knocked some sense into me. Nobody wants to be here if they’re not having fun. Shun’s your best friend, isn’t he? Listen to him and let him keep you balanced too. If you do, I bet you’ll start having more fun too.” Sho clapped Jun on the shoulder and left Jun with his thoughts.

Deciding he had nothing to lose, Jun took Sho’s advice. He listened when Shun complained that he was being boring, instead of glaring at him like he used to. Jun still analyzed the recordings of previous tournaments, but no longer forced his teammates to watch them. He could see the difference in his own team. By backing off from the intense practices, they actually started caring _more_ about preparing for tournaments. Their rank was rising slowly, but they were no longer at the bottom, and that encouraged them more than any pep talk by Jun. At the most recent tournament, they finished in the top ten, earning Jun an encouraging smile and pat on the back from Sho as the Keio team went up to the front of the auditorium to collect their first place trophy. All in all, Jun’s team was beginning to _feel_ like a team, working towards a common goal instead of random people who just happened to be in the same room.

\---

This was it, the most important day of Jun’s life. Okay, so it was only the tournament that would determine which teams would move onto the quarter-finals, but Jun was nervous. He had never managed to lead a team past the preliminary rounds and he really believed they had a shot at it this time.

One by one, Jun looked at his teammates. With some encouragement, Shun had taken up his role as Jun’s right-hand man, as well as providing his knowledge about literature and drama. Aiba’s fascination with chemistry made him their leader in science, and he never let practice get boring. Yamapi had quickly picked up on entertainment news from Shige and Koyama. And Ryo surprised them with knowledge about a little bit of everything, proving that he earned his reputation as a hotshot. And Jin, well, Jin tended to surprise them with random bits of information at the most unexpected moments.

“Okay guys, let’s do this,” Jun began rather awkwardly. Pep talks had never really been his thing. “If we make it to the quarter-finals, I’ll, um, buy the really good donuts for practice.” Jin whooped in delight as the rest of the team grinned and drifted away.

“Inspiring speech there, captain,” Shun teased, clapping a hand on Jun’s shoulder before following the rest of the team.

“Shut up, you,” Jun called out, then turned and saw Sho watching from a distance.

Sho gave Jun a two-fingered salute and called out, “Good luck!”

“Good luck to you too!” Jun replied with a smile. “And thank you, really, thanks for everything.” Sho shook his head and wandered back to his own team.

The tournament was a blur. Question after question, his team answered them like clockwork. Aiba practically bounced in his seat every time they got a question right. Ryo beamed with every answer that was particularly brilliant. Many manly fist bumps and pats on the back were exchanged that day. Jun didn’t have time to see how Sho’s team was faring, much less how they stood against the rest of the teams. He was just proud that they were finally getting more right than they were getting wrong. It was a vast improvement compared to this time last year. Jun could only hope that it was enough to get them into the quarter-finals.

\---

Jun paced nervously as the judges tabulated the scores and wrote up their notes. Unlike other tournaments, this one had no ranked winners, just the top eight teams, along with a first and second runner-up. The rest of the team tried to act calm, but Jun could tell that they were just as nervous as he was. Aiba jumped up every five minutes only to sit down in another chair.

A roar went up in the auditorium as the quarterfinals list flashed on the screen. Jun clung to Shun’s arm as he scanned the list. He reached the very bottom and his jaw dropped. _Waseda University, captain: Matsumoto Jun_. Still frozen in shock, Jun was swept into a massive hug. “We did it! We did it!” Shun shouted, pounding on Jun’s back. Jun was vaguely aware of Aiba bouncing in glee behind Shun as the others congratulated each other. They _had_ done it, and Jun knew exactly who to thank. He scanned the crowd and grinned as he caught sight of Sho in the midst of his own team’s celebration.

Deciding that he still wasn’t calm enough to drive home, Jun handed his keys over to Shun with threats of death and bodily harm if anything happened to his precious car.

“Yeah, like you’re one to talk,” Shun replied with a laugh as he slid into the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, remember the time he crashed my car into a tollbooth?” Aiba piped up from the back, safely out of reach from Jun’s smack (but that didn’t stop Jun from trying).

Jun could’ve protested yet again that it wasn’t his fault Aiba had a weird car, but he just shook his head with a grin and carefully opened the judge’s packet. It contained various things like copies of the scoring sheets, certificates of achievement, the list of questions and answers, but Jun was after just one thing: the tournament table for the semi-finals and the identity of their opponent for the first round. Jun quickly scanned the page and laughed in surprise as he found _Waseda University, captain: Matsumoto Jun vs. Keio University, captain: Sakurai Sho._

Just then, Jun’s phone buzzed in his pocket. Jun pulled it out and laughed as he read the message from Sho: _Congratulations. I look forward to competing against you._

 _Thank you, and good luck_ , Jun quickly replied.

 _So I’ll see you at practice on Tuesday at 6pm?_ Jun raised his eyebrows at Sho’s reply. He wasn’t expecting that, but he had no intentions of saying no.

 _Of course._. Jun typed his reply and tucked his phone back into his pocket, then leaned back into his seat with a grin. This was bound to be interesting.


End file.
